A-VSB group moves ahead with mobile TV for broadcasters: Standard could be alternative to TV from wireless carriers

LAS VEGAS — Five companies promoting the A-VSB standard for mobile TV broadcasting said they have made progress on the technology, and offered demonstrations during the National Association of Broadcasters Show this week to underscore their efforts.
The Advanced Television Systems Committee is expected to select a backwards compatible technology by early next year that will allow broadcasters to use their existing digital broadcast signals to deliver national and local TV programming to mobile devices. Last summer the organization received three proposals for the transmission standard for the technology.
Such efforts are separate from the mobile TV networks, such as MediaFLO and DVB-H, that have been built for wireless carriers.
The A-VSB Initiative, a group that includes Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd., MobiTV Inc., Nokia Siemens Networks, Rohde & Schwarz and SES Americom, appears to have taken a early lead in the mobile TV space for broadcasters.
The group is planning a consumer trial of the technology later this year that it hopes will prove the technology’s capabilities to broadcasters. The trial will also test different price points and service sets, with an eye toward finding a suitable business model.
“It’s not our place as a set of companies to tell broadcasters how to run their business,” John Godfrey, VP of government and public affairs at Samsung, said in an afternoon press conference Monday.
Brian McGuirk, president of media and enterprise solutions at SES Americom, said it will likely be a “national plus local model,” with both bringing in new revenues for broadcasters and content providers.
He said the process is moving along quite well, and that he doesn’t foresee any snags in the road until a standard is picked. “So far it’s all green lights,” he said.
A-VSB technology, coupled with a third-generation chipset, meets all of the ATSC’s guidelines for mobile TV broadcasting, including free and subscription based TV, clipcasting, datacasting, interactivity and real-time navigation data for in-vehicle use, Godfrey said.
He repeatedly declined to give specifics on the technology such as battery drain, explaining that the current chipset will not be the one going into mobile phones.
“It uses up battery power faster than you would really want in a handheld,” he admitted, adding that later versions will improve battery life. He wouldn’t comment on how A-VSB compares with MediaFLO and DVB-H in terms of battery life.
Every broadcaster has enough available spectrum to run at least one or two 24/7 mobile channels, Godfrey said. However, the group hasn’t yet worked with a broadcaster to show a high-definition, standard definition and mobile TV transmission all being broadcast at the same time.
The group believes there are at least five uses for the mobile TV service: tablet PCs, and embedded or add-on module in PCs, cellphones, in-car and portable media players.
The demonstration
Following the press conference, the A-VSB Initiative took a group of reporters for a spin around the Las Vegas strip to demonstrate the technology. The demo featured several devices, including a flat-screen TV, a cellphone and a tablet PC, running TV over the A-VSB standard.
The flat-screen TV also showed a standard (non-mobile) ATSC signal. When group’s bus began to move, the TV quickly lost its signal, proving the standard ATSC signal was never intended for mobile use.
The mobile channels ran in standard definition QVGA format at 30 frames per second. Channel changes on the tablet PCs took about one second, while the cellphone took upwards to three seconds between channels.